A coir mat with muscles for the Country Road

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KOCHI: Coir is all set to hit rural roads. Coir geotextiles, an indigenously developed coir product, will now be used as a reinfor..

KOCHI: Coir is all set to hit rural roads. Coir geotextiles, an indigenously developed coir product, will now be used as a reinforcement material on rural roads in eight states of India. The work will be undertaken by the Coir Board in collaboration with the NITs and other research institutions of the respective states. In each of the eight states, 50 km of roads constructed under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, will be taken up for the project.
The development comes close on the heels of the accreditation of coir geotextiles by the National Rural Road Development Agency (NRRDA) and the Indian Road Congress (IRC).Apart from reinforcement, geotextiles will reduce the damage of roads owing to waterlogging.

"Coir geotextiles have two functions, reinforcement and drainage. The interlinked network of coir fibres will absorb the water seeping into the roads and drain them away. This will prevent damage to roads owing to waterlogging. The soil will be first tested for its strength and geotextiles will be laid accordingly," said Sheela Evangeline, Assistant Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, College of Engineering Trivandrum (CET), who is currently monitoring the project in south Kerala.

"As of now, we are depending on the research institutes as nodal agencies. We are also training PWD engineers and workers in laying the roads. But once the manual is prepared, the state governments can use coir geotextiles independently. Moreover, it would not have to be restricted to rural roads," said Umasankar Sarma, Director, Central Coir Research Institute.